Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 24

            I wait, listening to the sound of my own breathing, growing heavy with anticipation. Penny’s parents have gone silent for a second, and I worry for a second that they’ve heard me.

            I watch them because they’re the only thing I can see through the gap in the door. They hold each other, Irene’s shoulders shake. I watch Frank’s hands going up and down with them, trying to fight back the tears himself,  trying to be strong for his wife.

            ‘Penny?’ I say again. Worry filling my thoughts as I greet the silence.

            She has to be here. She would go visit her parents.

            I was so sure she’d be here.

            Unless she doesn’t want to see me.

            Starting to feel sick, I take a deep breath and dive through the wall, feeling the compression and unclenching as I emerge on the other side.

            The room is empty. A pile of clothes on the chair. A desk, overrun with paper and notebooks.

            I lose my breath and stumble backwards. I’ve felt the rug pulled from beneath my feet. I shouldn’t have been sure. I should have given myself other options to calm myself.

            I’m back through the wall in seconds. Down the stairs, through the front door and into the street.

            Where is she?

            The world spins. The impossibly big world with every person who’s alive and every person who’s ever died. The biggest haystack I could have ever considered.

            I collapse to my knees. The world fades to blackness. I hit the ground, my knees squelching into wetness. My eyes don’t focus.
            I don’t know where I am.